Page 104 of For the Gods' Sake

They had a point. About Penelope Artemis, too. The Greek goddess of the hunthadended her line. But it wasn’t because of me. It was a tragedy of a personal kind. She’d ended her life young, a fact I knew was still tough for Luce to deal with.

For Sebastian, too, I imagined. Though I never heard him talk about her.

Sebastian, Penelope, and Luce had been quite close when we were younger. Sebastian like an older brother to the two of them.

“I’m having someone talk to the head of the paper,” I said, nodding to Emre to set up that meeting with one of my spies who worked in that industry. I couldn’t meet him myself without drawing suspicion. “See where this guy came from.”

“And then get his ass fired,” Jason grumbled.

I barked a low laugh. I wish it was that easy. If there was a way to fire him without implicating myself, I would. But I couldn’t draw more attention.

“Or shit,” Mia said, wadding up the paper in her hands and transforming it into an apple. One that she promptly took a bite out of. “Take Reyna out to dinner in public. Jupiter knows that’ll give the papers something to run for a week and a half.”

The whole room chuckled, levity breaking through enough for Lia to even feel comfortable asking me how Reyna was doing.

I answered calmly. Kept the same disposition for the rest of the meeting, making sure they all were finewith the plan and their frustration was ebbing after the shock of the morning. It was an old practice in control, keeping calm and collected on the surface.

All while a storm raged below the surface. Because they were right. I could solve it by simply showing up somewhere in public with Reyna. Engaging in some physical affection. Even kissing her long enough for someone to take a photo.

It should have been an easy yes. Itwouldhave been weeks ago, at the start of this.

But now all it did was twist unwelcome guilt through my stomach at the thought of using her. It was a war between duty and—yes, unfortunately—emotion.

One that I didn’t think would be solved until I laid eyes on Reyna again.

Chapter 24

Reyna

I opted to take the long way down from Olympus, deciding that time in a private train car would be good for me to evaluate what I was feeling.

Thanks to the joint invention efforts of Lord Hephaestus and Lady Vulcan, our trains had become so advanced that the once long journey from Olympus to Rome was cut to a little over an hour.

Perfect time for me to throw a pity party for one and wallow in my guilt and my stress and the swell of my heart that was getting difficult to ignore.

That pity party lasted a good fifteen minutes before I was reminded why I had a reason to be stressed in the first place. BecauseclearlySebastian had someone on his side working the train system.

He took a portal right into my private car, popping into the seat across from me with a lazy, relaxed stance. He was in a long sleeve. Classic, given the tattoos he needed to hide, and a long necklace was visible just under the collar.

I had half a mind to signal for Titus, who I’d asked to sit outside and give me a moment of privacy. I felt like I was going to cry when I first stepped on the train. He didn’t need to see that.

I could have tried to signal for him. But I just sighed, keeping my gaze on the blurred countryside as we whipped through it. “What do you want, Apollo?”

He chuckled low. “For someone who once demanded I address Adrian with respect, it’s awfully rich of you to not addressmeproperly.”

I scoffed, not caring what he thought. I was beyond fear. If he killed me, it would take away the battle I had to fight between my family and Adrian.

Sebastian didn’t push it further. Instead, saying, “You’ve been quite hard to track down. You wouldn’t be avoiding me, would you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, was I supposed to report my every move to you?” I shot back, finally turning back to him.

Sebastian’s features darkened. “No. But seeing as you’ve spent the better part of the last three days with your lovely boyfriend, I’m here to see if you’ve made a decision.”

“On what?” I asked sweetly, feigning ignorance to stave off the inevitable.

Sebastian leaned forward, crowding me against the plush seat. “Don’t test me. For every inch you push me, my desire to keep your brother alive depletes.”

A fresh wave of frustration fell over me. My chest ached, felt like it was cracking open. But I wouldnotcry in front of Sebastian.

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